Bucket excavator.



W. I. BETTIS.

BUCKET EXCAVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY9.1910.

1 ,162,676. Patented Nov. 30, 1915.

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W. l. BETTIS.

BUCKET EXCAVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAYQ. 1910.

Patented Nov. 30, 1915.

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WILLIAM I. BETTIS, or HOUSTON, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR TO FREDERICK o. AUSTIN, or

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BUCKET EXCAVATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 30, 1915.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, WILLIAM I. BET'rIs,

` a citizen of the United States of America,

and resident of Houston, Harris county, Texas, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in ABucket Excavators, of which the following is a Specification.

My invention relates to excavators of that kind in which a bucket is arranged to travel back and forth upon a runway which is lowered into the ground and which is adapted to determine the cross sectional outline of the ditch or excavation.

Prior to my invention the knife or blade at the edge of the bucket constituted the sole means for scraping or cutting the dirt from the bottom of the trench, in cases where the length of the bucket was such that the cutting angle thereof was objectionably impaired while rounding a sharp curve in the runway. This, of course, was found to be entirely unsatisfactory, as the bucket by thus not always traveling at the angle best calculated to enable its knife or blade to cut the soil would not give the best results. This is particularly so at the time the bucket changes Vits course or direction of travel at the bottom of the. runway in a cer tain type of machine, as at such time the cutting edge of the bucket is at such an angle that it is merely scraping and not cutting.

The object of my invention is, therefore, to provide an auxiliary cutter which will travel just ahead of the bucket, and which will always be at the proper angle to easily cut the soil, regardless of whether the latter is soft or hard, whereby the bucket will always receive a full load, and whereby the bucket may be of greater' length and capacity, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

In the accompanying drawings-Figure l is a front view of the runway and bucket of an excavator embodying the principles of my invention, showing the auxiliary cutter in position just ahead of the bucket, whereby the soil is properly cut or trimmed from the bottom of the trench and then left lying loosely to be scraped up or carried by the bucket to the desired point of discharge. Fig. 2 is a cross section of the said runway on line 22 in Fig. l. Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevation of the auxiliary cutter shown in Figs. l and 2. Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are similar views showing a different form of my invention.

As thus illustrated, the bucket A may be of any suitable, known or approved character, and is arranged to travel back and forth on the runway B, which latter may also be of any well known construction. The auxiliary device has a cutter or blade C secured to the lower end of a frame o that is provided with wheels c adapted to travel back and forth on the blade C is arranged to slide up and down in the frame c and has wheels 02 that travel 1n an additional track b for this particular purpose. The wheels O2 have axles that move up and down in the slots o3 in the frame c, whereby the blade C, which is a part of a bail shaped frame, is free to move relative to the said frame when the bucket changes its course at the bottom of the ditch. This track is so shaped at the bottom of the runway that the auxiliary cutter blade C is always maintained at the proper depth-that is to say, at the depth necessary to cut through hard Soil, such as clay, and to thus leave the soil loose and in condition to be taken up by the bucket.

The bucket, it will be seen, is at the proper angleto do good cutting while it travels down one side of the runway, and while it travels up the other side thereof; but while it is changing its course from a downward direction to an upward direction, it is traveling at such an angle (see the dotted lines in Fig. l) that its knife or blade is not cutting, strictly speaking, but is simply scraping the dirt, and therefore not giving the best results. My improved auxiliary cutter, however, always remains at the angle at which it works best, so that the Soil is always cut and not scraped, thus increasing the eificiency of a bucket excavator of this general type. This iS by reason of the fact that the wheel base of the cutter is so short that the cutting -angle is not objectionably changed while rounding the curve. The bucket, owing to its much greater length of wheel base, experiences an objectionable change in its cutting angle while rounding the rather sharp curve. But this does no harm when the long bucket is-used in combination with the cutter having a short wheel base.

In Figs. 4 to 6, the construction and operation are very similar to what is shown said runway. Thev in the preceding views. In this case, however, the cutter D is U-shaped and slides up and down between the'wheels Z on the frame CZ', which latter has the wheels Z2 that travel in the track or runway B. Also, in this form of my invention, the wheels d on the cutter D travel inthe main runway B, and not in a separate track, as they do in Fig. 1. The slots CZ* for the axle of the wheels Z3 permit the cutter to move relative to the frame (Z, when the bucket A makes the turn at the bottom or' the ditch. I do not limit myself to the exact construction shown'and described, as various arrangements may be adopted for accomplishing this result, as illustrated by the other forms omy invention herein disclosed, without departingi'rom the spirit o1 my invention.

In either form oi my invention it will be seen that the iframe of the auxiliary cutter remains at right angles to the frame or the wheels o', or the wheels (Z2 in the other form. In this way the frame oi' the cutter is always radial to the axis about which the lower end of the runway is curved, or substantially so, whereby the cutting angle of the knife of the auxiliary cutter always remains the same, or substantially so, thereby insuring the best results.

By my invention the length and capacity of the bucket may be much greater than heretofore, lith the auxiliary cutter the length of the wheel base of the bucket may be increased to any extent, so long as the wheel base of the cutter is kept short.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for llVhat I claim as my invention is:

1. An excavator comprising a runway having a bend therein, a bucket traveling on said runway, provided with a cutting blade having an operative angle while having an operative angle while traveling straight ahead, but which angle is impaired while the bucket is Vpassing around said bend, and a device traveling in front of said bucket, having means for loosening the dirt over the entire surface in front otl the bucket, said means consisting of a blade having an unimpaired cutting angle while passing Varound said bend, together with a sliding support for saidV last mentioned blade, movable to raise and lower the latter. Signed by me at Chicago, Illinois, `this 4th day of April 1910. A

WILLIAM I. BETTIS. Witnesses:

Mon'ron G. BUNNELL, S. Lnwrs.

ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C. 

